This past weekend I packed up some pieces and hied me off to Necronomicon. This is (or was, I suppose) the fifth year I've put work into this show, and I really enjoy it. This year a new crew put the show on, stepping in to fill a gap due to a health crisis and they Did Good. They did a bang-up job putting it together and running it and I want to say Thank You!

I put eight pieces in, some which I've shown here before. Well, most which I've shown here before, only one this year a brand new piece and I don't have that one up on the 'net anywhere for a quick link. Will work on that, I will. I'd started working on this piece a couple years back maybe, something of a joke, and then picked it up this year because I decided I want to show something in portfolio to help towards another goal. I'd love to see some of my art on a book cover, eh. So I created the 'Real Book Jacket to a Non-Existent Book' though some who read here may recognise some of the premise mentioned in the story synopsis on the back.

Got to visit with haikujaguar and silvertales who split a table on Writers Row. Bought something from both of them for lots of reasons, and popperaussie nearly got otter-napped off to Down South. Touch and go there for a bit. Mind you I don't think Popper objected much, certainly not at first...
( Kit & Popper )

Compliments on Saturdays hall costume, compliments on the Art though no sales, and in general a lot of fun. Generated the last building block I need to work on another piece I'd hoped to put in this year, until I realised I need this particular building block. Now to work on that... not just right now. Picked up another item which I plan to use as a prop or building block, whichever is the better word, more on that later.

Then back home yesterday and arrived in time to help finish up Evening Rounds on the Ranch. Greeted by Houdini bordercolliebrs. Nice when the pooch is glad to see one. Although he did go walkabout this morning, showed up after I finished Morning Rounds and was about to set off into town for errands and a routine doctors appointment.

Now to start tuning up the Booth Display and get ready for the Micanopy Art Festival this coming weekend.

Hence, some time off from Hospital. Never enough of that.

I've been conspicuous in absence the past couple weeks, between working on things on the Ranch and working at Hospital. Though I did take an extra day off last week from Hospital that was to provide time for Herself to go to a food management class for certification. With that certificate, she will be able to use a Certified Kitchen without one of the owners/employees being present. With that certificate, a large door opens for things to do with our Ranch produce to be taken to Market.

Meanwhile, I did get prints back from the lab, which need to be matted and framed before Thursday. Thursday afternoon I am off to Necronomicon and the 'opening' of my Fall Art Season. I've one day to work at Hospital this week, so Wednesday will be busy with framing two to three pieces, then packing them up to hit the road. There isn't anything but one piece in this year which is brand new, and that because time seems to be claimed by other things, primarily Ranch things, deemed more critical.

Ah well.

Meanwhile, it is (I did mention those Ranch things, right) almost time to head out with Houdini to make Evening Rounds here on the Ranch.

One of the things which is important in being a working artist is consistency. Keeping things going, working on art. Making regular posts if one is keeping a blog, simply because that consistency provides predictability.

Thing is, I don't have a lot to say just now. Not a lot of art work in the past week.

Tomorrow evening at The Doris is the Artists Reception and opening for the GFAA 90th Anniversary show, Art for All Seasons. This is pretty much it for this week in terms of art related.

We've been working on other things. The Ranch is always a constant. No excuse for being bored if one owns a ranch. Thing is, there too this time of year is basic maintenance because it is become too bloody hot and humid to be doing a lot more. Most of our chores we even try to get done early in the morning or later in the afternoon, before heat builds and after it breaks. So, feed, water, make sure things aren't broken, maintain.

Need to mow again soon in the high traffic areas. We experienced a couple weeks with little rain. Now it's falling again, somewhat regularly. Grass likes it. Not so much good for mowing though.

Did get Herself's new PC set up, and started installing some software. Getting at the data on the old hard drive required some help from a friend and the end result is this:
- Data recovered (includes bookmarks for two browsers), to the tune of 60 Gb or so. Yea.
- Checked the disk for errors and found about half of it trashed. It's dead, Jim.

It boils down to feeling like marking time, getting through the Dog Days of Summer and then being able to get active again. Problem is, there are things needing doing, getting ready for autumn shows and such.

No energy for such just now. Think I'll sit here and breathe for a bit. Yup.

We are winding down July, which puts us well and truly into the Time of Wet. This year been a bit wetter than others, not complaining (or not much) but there is some work to be done and it isn't work to be done while being rained upon. Particularly not if that same rain includes lightning. Staying caught up with routine things, not getting ahead much on other projects

This covers the Meanwhile Back at the Ranch part of today's post. Other than we are (and will be for a bit) settling in to the routines with only one Border Collie Bro about. Houdini is wanting to be close to me a bit more than usual as well, which only makes me wonder how long his next solo walkabout will be, not to mention when. And he thinks there hasn't been sufficient Rides recently, anywhere. This may be true, since at this time of the year there is no leaving him in a parked car while running errands, not even one which is left locked with engine and AC running. Just, No.

For the past week, this hasn't been possible since Sydney Subaru Outback is at the shop, It's mostly accumulated Things Needing Done, some quite routine like filter changes (along with oil, coolant, and such). I'd thought one of the CV joints (Constant Velocity, not Curriculum Vitae... I don't think Sydney has that sort of CV) was going but our mechanic says no. We did know the brakes needed attention if only because Sydney is a venerable 312,000 kilometres (195,000 miles) old. Turns out the sound I thought indicated problems with the CV joint is/was the brake caliper on that side.

Hopefully we get him back tomorrow.

Since July is winding down, so is our month at The Doris as the GFAA Featured Artists. We took in our folding display racks and matted inventory Friday evening past since the last Friday of the month is Art Walk. I've known about Art Walk for a bit over a year; various business establishments in Downtown Gainesville either art gallery type places or otherwise that support the arts stay open late, and host a bit of an open house. Since we are currently showing artwork at The Doris we sat in for the Art Walk, and helped out pointing visitors in the correct directions for whatever. Probably will next month as well, though then it will be as part of a larger show Art For All Seasons, 90th Anniversary of the GFAA. We will each have two pieces in that show; not sure which ones yet, but two each.

Meanwhile I've also actually spent money on an app for smartphone. Might not seem such a big deal to most folks, but I'm know as a bit of a spendthrift offspring of unmarried parents on a lot of days, and from the start of my carrying anything even purporting to be a smartphone (as in the old Treo NotSoSmartPhone) all the apps either came with the phone or are free. Some of the free ones are to make it easier to conduct business with certain firms. B&H Photo in New York is one such, plus bank apps, the Weather Channel app, some others. Even if the 'functionality' is limited compared to a purchased app, nearly all are free.

The one exception (so far) is AutoStitch. This app I picked up after a good amount of research, as it meets my needs for an experimental approach to my photography. I've often said (related to cameras but true overall as well) that the most useless tool one owns is the one at home when needed. This is one of the things about smartphones I really like, always having a camera handy.

Panoramas are a type of photography where a wider image is made by overlapping a series of images. Often used for landscapes, and the word itself somewhat harkens back to that source, the concept need not be limited to landscapes. There are a number of apps about that help automate this process, which helps, yet are limited to either horizontal or vertical assembly. AutoStitch is not so limited; I can take three or even more vertical rows of overlapping images and put together an assembled panorama.

Where this attracts me so much is that I like making big prints, always have. Smartphone cameras are constantly improving, but they aren't quite up to even middle-line point and shoot megapixel rating, much less DSLR. So being able to assemble a larger photo from multiple smaller ones is one way around this limitation. I figure to be ready to post some of the results for visual sharing next week.

In my spare time.

I think I've got some spare time.

Somewhere.

Paying attention? Looking for the weekly State of teh Artist post? Not seen one for a couple weeks? One of those weeks is on me, I stipulate I didn't make the time. One, however, is on a list of weeks some folks would ask for a do-over. I don't ask for such. I won't ask. I don't want to do the past week over. Nothing happened we can't cope with, live through, deal with. Not a lot happened we enjoyed.

Some good things did happen. Monday a week past I ran an errand into town to hang some of our artwork at The Doris Bardon Community Cultural Center commonly called The Doris. The Gainesville Fine Arts Association is pretty strongly affiliated with The Doris (go read info on the site to learn why) and consequently GFAA members are given space on a monthly basis to hang their work for display and sale. July we are the Featured Artists. It is a big deal, and it's not that big a deal, because becoming a Featured Artist involves telling the GFAA member responsible for the wall that one is interested. Then you get a month.

However, Monday after that started the roller coaster. While driving over to Tioga Farmers Market, Forrest Nissan Pickup lost power, a rapid but not sudden event, and we shifted gears from our usual routine for me to go help transfer goods to Sydney Subaru Outback, send Herself on her way, and wait for AAA Auto Club to get the tow out to us. Dropped Forrest off with our local mechanic, waited for Market to finish and Herself to pick me up.

Keeping things brief, Forrest is back in service after replacing fuel and water pumps, new struts (shocks) in the rear plus a complete tune-up and all fluids/filters change. He feels much better now, at 250K Plus Change miles.

Keeping more things brief, I missed sending Hippie Birdbaths greetings over to wcg here in the Blogosphere; so Belated Hippie Birdbaths, Bill.

We've dealt with two opossum females that were raiding eggs and chickens. Chooks will not be bothered by those particular opposum, nor their current offspring, any more.

Still brief but not excessively, Monday also saw the start of the end of a decade. Squrrl Border Collie Bro felt a bit lethargic on Monday, not particularly interested in dinner (ate some). I attributed it at that point to a very hot day spent mostly outside, though also mostly in the shade. On Tuesday, though, his lethargy increased, he didn't want to go outside and did so only for body functions. Pale gums; Herself started treating him with some supplements to help. Not interested in dinner at all.

Wednesday, breathing laboured, even more lethargic. Wagging tail when I got home from Hospital, not lifting his head. I spent time with him there in the living room, and close on to 20:00 (didn't look at the clock for a bit) Squrrl took his last breath.

We buried him on Thursday morning, next to his brother Smudge.

I will write more, I will, but later. Meanwhile, going to continue carrying on, waiting for Waiting to fill a Squrrl sized hole in our souls.

Thursday

The day after the new tractor arrived, a couple things happened. More than a couple, however not many more, and one of the things affected a Change of Plans as far as things to do and get done is concerned.

First of all, we name our motor vehicles here on KP Ranch (in case you've not noticed my referencing Sydney Subaru Outback or Forrest Nissan Pickup or Harrison Ford 8N...) and while I made morning coffee the old hind-mind percolated up the name for our new compact tractor (that being the more industry accurate description of what Herself calls an estate tractor). Pretty obvious, actually, as was Harrison's name. New tractor is LittleJon Deere.

Second of all, while we kept the Border Collie Bros occupied with watering the Dirty Yard Birds and incidental Water Sports, the Tree Guys working on next door neighbor's north paddock … Right. Next door neighbor Ms. P is clearing some of the trees on her north paddock (right next door to us) so as to both provide more light for grass and grazing for her cows, and to re-direct the right of way that Cater-Corner Neighbor is granted across her paddock to access their property. Neighbor wants to move that right of way track closer to the fence line. Long story, involves the Cater-Corner Neighbor as well. Anyway, she's hired the Tree Guys to do this.
And they proceeded to drop a big old laurel oak across our fenceline in Goat Paddock.

Herself and I got part way walking up there, saw the mess, and said pretty much simultaneously to each other: We need the tractor/I'm getting the tractor.

And we proceeded to pull branches away from the fenceline which the Tree Guys trimmed off that old laurel oak. Some fairly good sized (20 cm or so diameter where cut, several metres long). Took a few hours, and we determined that none of the fence posts were broken, just wire pushed down. Reset the wire, goats enjoyed the leaves off the branches (Oak Leaves! Goat Candy!). Wrapping that up, Herself asked me if we should take some of the lighter stuff over to the bucklings in their pen.

Sure.

So she walked to one of the bunches of branches and started pulling out some rather small ones. Meanwhile, I looked at that, then drove LittleJon over to one of the smaller piles of branches, which were also much smaller (5 – 10 cm or so diameter), bundled them with the work rope I'd been using to the front-end loader, lifted them, and headed off toward the Buckling Pen.
Herself looked up as I got closer, and waved her arms at me palms up, sort of, What?

Well, you did say bring some of the lighter stuff for the Bucklings, didn't you?

Yes. Quite delightful, owning a functioning tractor again. And that front-end loader brings a whole new definition of 'lighter stuff' to the game, as well.

However, we also lead into...

Saturday: Notes To Self About New Tractor

Always remember to turn the ignition switch to Off on Littlejon Deere. On Thursday, when I got off the saddle without putting the transmission into neutral the safety cut-off turned the engine off. Apparently I neglected to come back to turn the switch off (I think I planned on re-starting however that didn't happen). Saw the instrument lights on on Friday morning on my way out, turned switch off then. Littlejon would not start yesterday. Low battery. Will need to get the battery out to charge it up; do-able, a bit of work. Getting jumper cable clips on, not so much easy, so couldn't get a jump-start.

Herself kindly blamed the local raccoons for playing with the key, which is on a fishing lure fob. So Rocky Raccoon turned the ignition on, but couldn't get the beast started (still in gear, eh), got bored and left. Did run the battery down though.

Also, I think one portion of the three-point category one hitch is missing, the center bar (by whatever name). May not be necessary for the auger attachment, as that may constitute the center bar. Will need to take a closer look. If it is totally missing, will need to replace it.

Front end loader will accept alternate attachments. Three different sized buckets, and two pallet tine accessories will fit this front end loader. Not sure we need the other buckets, however a pallet tine set could be very useful.

Sunday, More Notes to Self About New Tractor

Took a good hard look at the post hole tool on Saturday afternoon. Herself was off to an SCA event. I was supposed to be cutting wire fabric for chicken tillers. After watering and feeding everyone, the Bros and I took a hard look at the post hole tool.

The pivot connection point, that end is bent slightly. The guard around the PTO connection at the gearbox, majorly bent out of shape. The u-joint for that end of the PTO shaft is broken off, in that guard, and won't turn completely around. The PTO shaft itself is both bent and torqued. So is the 15 cm (six inch) auger. Called the fellow we purchased it from, asked him if he'd used any of the attachments (worked into the call as a friendly question; mostly made it a 'Thank You' kind of call).

No, he hadn't. Mentioned to him that the large auger is a 30 cm (12 inch) auger. He said he hadn't ever measured it, just assumed it was a nine inch. We're all good on this as is, mind you, so we've got this big bit which, well.

There is a warning label on the bar of the tool itself, "designed for up to 9” auger bits". So that auger is too big, and I won't use it. The model number is on there somewhere, make a note, do some shopping for a replacement. I figure the original owner got the smaller bit tied up in some limerock, easy to do hereabouts, bound up the bit and that torqued off the drive shaft, braking the u-joint and battering the shield about.

Took the shaft over to S NotOnLJ's shop. He's going to work on it tomorrow (which is today, I wrote some of this yesterday). We may get it straightened out, but if it is torqued indeed, the grooves upon which the two portions of the shaft slide... will not line up. Worst case scenario, I need to purchase a replacement PTO shaft. The tongue at the connection end, we can probably straighten that out.

Fairly easy, turns out, to get the front grill off, and a bit easy to get the battery out. Looks like it may be a 'proprietary' battery. It is at least a 'type 51'. More to be learned. Put it on the charger a while. Turned charger off while I went to Steve's. Still off. Probably leave it off overnight, start charging again tomorrow morning.

Overnight

Herself got home a bit earlier than I expected, though possibly not as I didn't start filling the tub until a touch after 21:00. She enjoyed a good visit and accomplished her business. Nor did she express much upset on the news about the tractor implements and not getting started on chicken tillers. Like me, she looks at the larger auger bit as either a re-sell item or see if we get a heavier duty post hole tool for the 8N. I think though we will wind up selling it. S e-mailed me with the news that he got the broken portion of the u-joint off, and on further inspection yes, that drive shaft is toast. It may be only half the shaft, we'll see. I've got a few lines on replacement PTO drive shafts, far far less expensive than the whole tool attachment.

More Gimp Learning

Reading a tutorial on making a simple watermark in GIMP. Will bookmark in both Safari & Chrome. I'm leaning toward a simpler answer, which is going to be two-part, for my problem of bringing all the 'chop' work I did in Photoshop into Gimp. Use the simple chop, kanji only, not the © year in vertical plus (that one I could edit the year text in Photoshop, can't yet in Gimp). Place name & © year in text also. Mind you, this is probably for on-line versions, not necessarily print versions. Now, just to experiment and learn.

To that end, I've also printed to PDF the web page which is the tutorial for adding a simple watermark in Gimp. Plus a couple others.

But not right now. Cut that wire fabric for Chicken Tillers today, put the battery back into LittleJon, started him up, used him for some other big chores. Like mowing a big swath, taking the last of the cattle feed over to them, things like that. Now it's time for dinner and more beer. Already started on the beer, yashuryoubetcha, eh!

Up bright (no, not actually) dark and early yesterday, loaded truck and on the road by 06:30, and about an hour to get to Windsor. Wee bit of grumpiness early, it passed. Probably shouldn't even have grumped then, oh well. Long day, and as far as Studio 318 is concerned no sales. However, the Ranch half of the booth did exceeding well with sales of goat milk fudge and goat milk soaps.

A light steady rain for a short period came along around 15:00, and whump vendors started packing up to go home despite another two hours to the festival. We stayed put; I dropped the outer walls on the two sides with art, and moved the jewelry display under the roof. Ditto for the soaps, and we weathered things fine. I saw several other vendors who obviously do weekend festivals a lot, and come with that underlying philosophy (often stated outright on the application forms) that it's rain or shine the show goes on. You paid your booth fee, you stay.
And while the crowd thinned down some from the rain, sales continued, particularly of the fudge, up to and after the end of the show. Now, by the 17:00 time slot, probably half the vendors had left already.

So we packed up, and covered the back of the pickup with a tarp and put the corrugated board boxes with framed artwork into the Subaru. Herself arrived shortly after the rain, so between 15:30 and 16:00.Good thing, too, because on the drive home we drove into the serious rain, which the forecast said would get to us around 19:00 and it arrived maybe an hour early.

We all went to Las Aviñas in Archer for dinner, not a big decision really since we all live to one side or the other of Archer and so we all were going there anyway. Good dinner, then home, left the truck covered for the more rain through the night and did a hot tub soak and crashed. Hard. Didn't wake until nearly 07:00 this morning.

Luxury.

Now, the Windsor Zucchini Festival is several things. Primarily it is a fundraiser for the community of Windsor to fund their volunteer fire department; besides the vendor booth space sales, they also sell chicken dinners and lunches, all involving a zucchini dish of some sort, and zucchini bread, and there are the Cook-a-Zucch contests, and of course Miss Zucchini. For these reasons alone, being a vendor (very specifically, the fact that it helps this community fund their fire department) is on the list of Things To Do again next year. Even if, again, Studio 318 doesn't make any sales. We did last year, so there.

It is also the last even we've been doing before the Summer Hiatus. Last year we did a brief stint at Bronson's first ever Fourth of July Festival; we may set up the Ranch booth this year if there is a repeat, I won't be setting up the Studio however. There is a reason for the Summer Hiatus here, and that is the combination of heat and humidity. Given time and research and experience, there may be some summer festivals we'll try our Studio booth at. Those are very likely going to be on the coast, where sea breezes help with the heat and humidity.

Here in North Central Baja Jorja, though, it's time to settle in to a more relaxed pace. There are still things to do, and get done, and outdoors, just... slower.

It's time to get moving on a couple bigger projects here on the Ranch. The back deck of Studio 318 needs to be re-planked, and the roof enlarged. That's one of them.

It's also time to review all the lessons learned in nearly two years of setting up the Studio Pavilion at weekend (and some week-day) festivals, and tune things up. During today's drying time, I made measurements of the pavilion for revamping the support system on the Art Display Walls. The walls themselves are made from shade netting fabric, purchased at Lowe's. They're holding up well enough, showing some signs of their use, and we've thought of a couple things to improve them for the next go-around. (That is, if we don't decide we are bringing in enough funds to justify purchasing the commercially available net style display walls... though I'm leaning towards the Do It Yourself variation again.)

The two side walls get the most art anyway, as that is what is most visible when people walk by. The current method of a single schedule 40 PVC tube as the weight distribution member across the top, with the primary anchors being loop and ball bungee cords, will continue to serve. However, the nearly two years of service on the current PVC tubes show a couple small problems.

The tubes are two parts, half the length of the side, so they will break down for transport inside the Subaru. Been using the slip fit which came with the tubing; this works, but it's stiff (supposed to be when using the tubing for plumbing, its primary purpose) and as the tubes aged, one broke. So I'm going to re-do these, still half the length, only with a male/female threaded coupling at the half-way point so they will thread together. Should be easier to both put together and break down for both of us, primarily Herself.

The back wall needs a revision. We knew other artists used a partial wall on the back side of their pavilions, and now from the three bigger art festivals we did we agree. Need that 'back door' to get out that side, as the place where most the extra stock and our lounging area is. So that wall will get a frame to tension the wall onto, rather than going to the poles of the pavilion itself as it has been. The tension is necessary because that's an important part of the weight distribution in our hanging display system.

I may also look at that experiment as a means to provide our own free-standing walls if we need them. So the frame will be something heavier than the 19mm (3/4”) PVC we're using for the top bar. This piece may not break down, or not the same way, so it's going to take a bit of thought. To convert it to a free-standing wall, I plan on using the same male/female threaded coupling to attach the feet.

Along with the redesign of the back wall art display, we're also figuring a means to support the back weather wall as a shade fly when we're set up at festivals. Get some rain and overnight, things move inside the main cover and the back wall comes down as the weather wall again; most of the time, however, it can provide shade for us sitting out back as needed.

Most festivals stipulate that the booth space is it, and the artists displays need to fit within the space. A lot of them, though, provide enough space behind booths for a bit of stretch. When we need to live within the space, we'll have a full wall. When we can stretch a bit, we shall.

If I call my Festival Year starting in September after the Summer Hiatus, and counting the con art shows, we've done seven shows, and sales at five of them. Counting just from New Years, we've done five shows, and sales at three. Two of those shows we made expenses, one we also made some profit, and one we didn't make expenses even with the sale. If we figure how well the Ranch Booth half of the show did at Windsor, than we made expenses and some profit at two, expenses at three, and et cetera. Not too bad, overall.

There is still a stack of prints which need mounting and matting, however tomorrow I should be clearing the decks in Studio for a session. After that session I will re-set for matting until I get that stack done. Meanwhile, in between all this I'll continue working up the greeting card ideas. May be able to offer those as a test via the blog, if anyone is interested.

Now, it's getting on evening here. Evening Rounds are done. The Bros got a flea bath today, which they tolerated because hey, it also involved several rounds of Hose! Chase the Wet! Amazing how inexpensively one may entertain themselves with a couple of Border Collies. Also useful to use their pleasure at playing a game where they chase the water coming out of a hose to tire them out.

I'm working on two applications for Autumn weekend festivals. The lead time for most of these is such that yes, in the Autumn I'm working on the Spring, and in at least late Spring I'm working on the Autumn. At any rate, after going through the process for one of these in the Spring entirely on-line, I'm perhaps a bit jaded. Or some other word. Anyway.

Both Autumn festivals are juried, as in they want to see samples of my work and of the Booth before inviting me in. For one of the two Autumn festivals, those samples may be submitted on a CD, the other however needs hard copy prints. And I'm... Hard copy? Really? And, I sell hard copy, folks, so you're getting potentially sell-able examples of my work (not that on a CD, or e-mailed, or via the web isn't as well).

Still, they're printed from the JPEG versions I use to put on-line for this purpose, so in one sense quality is limited. And, it is practice figuring out how to print using the new Mr. Printy which is important for other Studio 318 Booth related projects, so hey, all good, yes?
Still, there's that interesting, curious feeling. Hard copy? Really?

The other project is printing and packaging for sale Art Greeting Cards, which Herself and I started discussing about this time last year. With a year under the belt of Thinking About It, seems about time to actually be putting together some product and part of the concept is we can put together product pretty much all from here in Studio. No need to hire out printing, we can print our own.

The size prints that the one Autumn Weekend Festival want is on a par with the larger size greeting card we plan to offer. Basically, take a 21.6 by 27.9 cm sheet, fold in half on the shorter axis, and one now holds a 21 by 14 card. Print appropriately and the artwork is on one face of the fold, and information/credits on the opposite face, outside surfaces. Package this with an appropriately sized envelope and price accordingly and c'est voila, an Art Greeting Card.

I doubt we'll put much into Inventory by the next weekend festival (not this coming weekend, next after that), since I also want to replace matted inventory and we've more material on hand for that than we do for the cards. Still, it's good to see that A) we selected and purchased a good printer for the project and B) it is going to pan out, at least the production end.
Prices per card will be on the order of $2-$5 US, with the higher end price being a limited edition run as well as larger cards. Some of the pieces we've photographed will work quite well for smaller cards. Figuring out the printing logistics is not difficult. However, it does open a window on another problem, do I need to re-invest in an application or am I going to be able to do this with current applications.

Current applications does not include software that is so old it no longer runs in the current operating system. That's a different rant, however, about planned obsolescence and all, and I'm not going there today. So far, what I'm working on uses one of the sub-portions of Open Office which is free software, and I do recommend it after using it for a couple years now. At least the word processing and spreadsheet portions, and I use them a good deal. There is a drawing program as well (haven't opened it at all), a presentations program (vis-a-vis Powerpoint® from the Evil Empire) and a data base. I've studied the latter a bit, and the presentation program as well. It's been a while since I've done any public speaking or other teaching using a presentation. However, I think this one does a good job as well.

On the other hand, while it contributes a bit to the ability to print images, it isn't, per se, the best manner to go about document creation and printing. Based on past experience, neither is a word processor, believe it or not. Even though most word processor applications do provide a means to organise and print a document in a manner reflecting a published work, I've found that moving to applications that specialise in document layout is a better route for that.

Which is why I am considering should I upgrade one of the few applications from Microshaft I've ever felt they did a good bit in providing. Powerpoint®, Excel® and Word® dominate the market, though current news indicates that lead is slipping. I've little use for Word, in fact I use it so little and mostly work (as in Hospital) related that it is easy to dismiss on my part. The word processing in Open Office much more meets my needs and expectations, which are based on another major word processing package, WordPerfect®. And it's free (Open Office). Ditto for Excel®.

I got much better with Powerpoint®, and still see that as being one of the standards to reach for. Doesn't mean I like it. Nor did I ever purchase it; again, a big portion of my using this application related to Hospital.

I've very little use for Access® and I've also used that fairly extensively (guess where? Clues above!) and again, not on the planned purchase list. The data base app in Open Office is more akin to dBase® for those who've worked with such applications. I cut my data base teeth on Paradox® which originally Borland published, then sold over to Corel to include in Perfect Office (their response to Microshaft Office).

Publisher® from the Evil Empire, now, that one they did some good. Much more affordable than the Big Name in Publishing Software and with pretty much all the features of that BNiPS and even a few more that it didn't include. However, I'm not sure this Spendthrift Offspring of Unmarried Parents is in the mood to provide any more funding to the Evil Empire.

Not when there are (still unexplored) alternatives currently here on my PC.

Meanwhile, the metal is going up onto the roof of Big House. We are closer to the new roof being done, and it is good.

This past week felt slower, rather delightfully considering the build-up to the Spring Arts Festival. Mostly I've covered some of the Ranch things which need covering and which we postponed temporarily for the Arts Festival. One of those items didn't occur this week, it should though tomorrow. We both helped out some friends who need it, our partners in the Farmers Market booth. And other routine chores around the House.

Today with the weather being rather wetter, I worked inside Studio 318. Matted two of Herselfs pieces for inventory, framed another for her personal use, and framed up a piece which sat there waiting for quite a while, I am ashamed to admit. It is a piece from the Healing Art series and this particular copy goes to the friend who helped create it. In the long run, this is part of the plan, that this one copy, in the frame specific because it hung on the wall for the making of the original source, would go to her to hang in that same place.

Now it can. Tomorrow, though, since it's raining now.

( Recursive Series #1 )

Since Herselfs' iPhone started acting up a month or so ago, we've been discussing upgrades. After all, it's two years, so it's time according to Modern Business to do so. This despite the facts we like a lot of things about the old iPhone (3, nice form factor in the hand, been a dependable beast over most of the haul). Then last weekend while trying to phone in a breakfast order while setting up at Haile Farmers Market, my phone rebooted itself, and when it came back up said 'You Have No Contacts.'

Well, yes, actually, I do, rather a few of them in fact. Good news, yes my backup is current and yes the contacts are backed up. After the years over time I spent studying the Tao of I.T. if I learned nothing else, I learned Backup Yer Backups, Eh!

Bad news, trying to upgrade via Provider Web Site, provider would not verify our Physical Address as a real place. Despite, mind you, various shipping concerns being able to deliver to us quite regularly for the past 27 years or so. UPS, in fact, very easily made the transition from 'Kuma's Playpen, A Ranch, N. Cty Highway' to '14650 N 100 St' when County established the 911 Address Grid. The only concern which doesn't (yet) deliver here is the USPS because we've not put a box out at the road, since we used (still do)a P.O. Box address for mail.

Good news, when I explained this on Tuesday at the Provider Brick & Mortar Store, not only did I get a nice price on the replacement/upgrade phones, they happily tossed in the equivalent OtterBox outer cases we use on the 3's for the new 4S phones, free. Thanks.

More good news, Herself is even happier with new OtterBox ('Oooooo, it's Red!').

Good news, most everything from the previous backup did install onto new phone. Had to re-enter some passwords on various apps, no worries.

Bad news, since the Contacts backup is in Microshaft Proprietary Format 'Contacts' vile (why yes, that is a deliberate mis-use of the word), Apple iTunes will not talk to it to retrieve the data and the new phone still told me 'You Have No Contacts'.

::sighs::

I know there are alternatives for the backup. Will investigate as we go onward and upward and ever round and round the mulberry bush.